The Washington Wizards have been floated as a potential trade destination for Jalen Duren over the past week. It remains unclear whether there is any actual fire amid the billowing smoke.
The Wizards were among four teams ESPN’s Marc J. Spears mentioned during Monday’s episode of NBA Today that were said to “have interest in a potential sign-and-trade” for Duren. Washington’s inclusion in the report caught Jorge Sedano off guard, to the point that he felt the need to interrupt Spears.
“The Wizards
one, let’s just recklessly speculate for a second,” Sedano said. “There’s one salary, one particular one that still is unsigned moving forward in Anthony Davis that could make the math work.”
“I think you are probably doing good math,” Spears replied.
A report published Wednesday by The Athletic’s Sam Amick and Hunter Patterson initially corroborated Spears. At first, the article “confirmed an ESPN report indicating that the Washington Wizards would have interest in a Duren-for-Anthony Davis trade,” which was supposedly not of interest to Detroit.
The Athletic later removed the Wizards mention from the article entirely and included an amendment clarifying that the earlier reporting was erroneous.
“An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that the Wizards would have interest in a potential Duren-Anthony Davis sign-and-trade. The article has been corrected by removing that reference,” the amendment read.
It’s possible the Wizards tried to gauge interest in a Duren-Davis swap and covered their tracks once they realized there was none, so as not to risk shaking up team chemistry. It could also be that the reporting was simply wrong or overblown from the beginning.
The regular season starts in three weeks, folks.
